


Patches & Stitches

by Kiiratam



Series: The Non-Vytal Weekend [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, good dad tai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21983587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Ruby's home on Patch, the weekend before the Vytal Festival. And Tai can tell she's a little down, so he does his best to help.Takes place a few days before the start of Volume 3. (My BMBLB fic index)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Series: The Non-Vytal Weekend [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1586437
Comments: 11
Kudos: 64





	Patches & Stitches

"You all ready to go, Ruby?" Tai mussed his daughter's hair. She kept doing different things with it, trying out new dyes and patterns... One day, he expected her to shave her head, just for the variety. 

  
She whistled for Zwei, and he burst out of a crowd of Signal students and zoomed over to them, claws skittering on the tile. Ruby waved in the direction of the crowd. "Yeah. All ready."

  
Well, that was not her usual voice. All glum, and her eyes were lowered. Tai made a guess. "Odd being back?"

  
"Yeah. I tried to say hi to my old friends, but-" Zwei ran into her ankles, and put his feet up on her legs, panting. Ruby gave him some ear scratches. "-it's just not the same."

  
"You've been gone almost a year. People can change pretty fast at your age. And you and them have been busy." Tai paused, trying to decide if he should tell her the rest. That a lot of kids had been angry about Ruby getting into Beacon two years early. Best not to. She'd either have figured it out on her own, or it wouldn't help. Or both. 

  
Ruby sighed. "And I've made lots of friends at Beacon, even without Yang's help. Like Jaune, and Velvet, and okay, I guess Weiss and I are on the same team, so I don't know if that really counts, but her too!" She gave Zwei more pets.

  
"But it's still weird."

  
"Yeah."

  
Tai was pretty sure this was one of those nagging problems that talking couldn't really fix. It was a 'time heals all wounds' sort of deal, but- "You want to get ice cream? Happy Screaming is on the way." Not on the way _home_ , but on the way to Zwei's vet appointment. "They've still got Zwei's favorites." (It was treats.)

  
Zwei had been listening (with his psychic treat sense), because he bounced away from Ruby and started bounding around in a circle, barking and wagging everything he could.

  
Tai snorted. "They may spoil him a little bit. Everyone there loves him."

  
"Everyone everywhere loves Zwei. Even Blake."

  
Right, the quiet, dark-haired one. Yang had mentioned her. "She not a dog person?"

  
"More of a cat-person." And then Ruby sped up for some reason. "I mean, she reads a lot, and she likes the quiet, and she takes a lot of naps. She doesn't actually have a cat or anything. That would be really weird - I don't even know if you could combat train a cat, even if it would be really cool and helpful, I mean Zwei is great, and he sort of acts like a cat already with all the napping, but it would be a different kind of cute. One that Blake would probably like more, even if she does still like Zwei. Just, uh, in a weird way." Ruby paused to take a breath, and Tai knew better than to try to interrupt. She usually babbled when she got nervous, and it really seemed to help her to get the whole thing out.

  
Ruby pressed on. "Like Yang's friends, the ones who were dating and also fought all the time?" Last Tai had heard, they had gotten engaged and _still_ fought all the time. He nodded. "Kind of like that, but with more them playing hide-and-seek, except Zwei was the only one playing and Blake just wanted to be left alone, and Zwei sneaking into her bed in the middle of the night, and this is really sounding bad, isn't it, but he did the same thing to the rest of us, and I don't think he really understood that Blake didn't always want to play. Especially since Weiss would always make time, even if she was in the middle of a project, and even _I_ didn't interrupt her then."

The Schnee heiress. Peter had mentioned some early trouble between her and Ruby - kind of like the early clash between Summer and Raven - but Peter had talked to her, and said that everything had apparently been resolved. Well enough that RWBY was at the top of the class. Weiss certainly seemed to have a good work ethic, which was more than Tai had really expected from a spoiled rich girl. Good for her.

  
"Umm, and yeah, ice cream sounds good. I forget to get a snack in Vale."

* * *

  
It must be bothering her. She'd stopped halfway through her sundae, and had set her spoon down. At least she'd finished the strawberries.

  
Tai decided he needed a more active distraction stance. "Zwei been a good boy?" It was safe to ask, with him wallowing in a pile of cuddles and treats and attentive ice cream shoppe customers and employees.

  
That got her thinking, at least. "I mean... as good as he ever is. He's been very lazy, since we're busy all the time. But we got JNPR and professor- uh, doctor Oobleck to also help take care of him. I think he's one of Port's TAs, too. And he _still_ naps all the time."

  
"What does Port-?" No, he'd just have to ask Peter later. And if Zwei was actually on the Beacon payroll. Tai wouldn't put it past Ozpin.

  
"Helping with the practicals of tests. He's pretty strict, too."

  
Tai would _definitely_ have to ask Peter about that. And see if Zwei would be willing to help in his classes, too. Having Zwei cannonball at you would be a good way to test stances...

  
"Oh, yeah, before I forget." Ruby actually looked up at him. "Can Zwei come back at the end of the weekend? Weiss was really upset that he had to go."

  
There was Weiss again. But she was a part of Ruby's team, and the Vytal Tournmanent did start very soon... "I don't see why not. As long as you two can help me chase the raccoons out of the house."

  
"Daaaad."

  
"I'm serious! I haven't actually been back to the house yet. I've been crashing on the couch in the teacher's lounge. I've been afraid to go home without someone to watch my back."

  
Ruby rolled her eyes, and put on standard teenager look #2: 'I'm embarassed by my father, but also secretly proud of him giving me an opportunity to show off.' As opposed to a #1, which was just teenager motification. "So I guess we're getting take-out?"

  
"I think driving off a raccoon colonization force deserves pizza. And I don't remember what we've got left at the house."

  
"Okay, but Yang told me not to eat junk food all weekend, so we're going shopping tomorrow."

  
Tai nodded. They needed to come back to town anyway, to pick Zwei up from his vet appointment. "Deal." He picked up his spoon. "You gonna finish yours, or should I help?"

  
It was amazing how fast she could eat under the threat of sharing.

  
"Don't hurt yourself. I'll go get Zwei."

* * *

  
Poor Zwei.

  
He'd whined, and turned on the sad puppy eyes, and whimpered - but the vets also loved him, and he needed to spend the night. But it was always rough leaving him, and Ruby already was feeling down, so Tai asked, as they left, "How's Yang?"

  
"Good. She says hi."

  
"She still spending time with Beryl and everyone?" Tai hoped not; they were a bad influence. Or at least way too hormone-addled for his peace of mind. Aaaaaaand he'd jumped right back onto Signal friends, and now he hoped not so that Ruby wouldn't feel _worse_ -

  
"Not really. A bit, but we stay really busy with team practices, and individual training, and she's been spending tons of time on Bumblebee, and she and Blake used to go down to Vale a lot, but they're doing a lot of partner training now, because of the Vytal Tournament, even though Yang and Weiss are going to be our entries into the doubles match, if we even make it that far-"

  
Tai mussed her hair. "You will, don't worry."

  
"Thanks, dad. And even when we're not training, we do team-building exercises." And she flushed. "Even if its playing F&F, which is really good for that, even if I know you don't think so-"

  
Tai laughed. "Listen, if Qrow and I could go out drinking, and Summer could braid Raven's hair, and we called _that_ team-building, I think I can spot you some gaming."

  
"Daaaad, it _does_ help with small unit tactics, and reading comprehension, and-"

  
"I know, I know." He held his hands out for mercy. "You and Yang have given me the pitch. Repeatedly. Did you two ever ask Qrow?"

  
"Yeah, but he said he wasn't interested. Too much work. He said something about trying WereGrimm and not liking it, and he did that thing where he just stopped listening to us when we tried to explain the differences...." She sighed, then brightened. "But the game I'm running now is going well. It's Weiss' first game, and Blake's, and it's really interesting to see the difference between how they play. Because Weiss has read all the rules, and Blake has practically written a book on everyone's characters. And even Yang is playing in a different way, instead of just murdering everyone. And it's Pyrrha's first game too, and she's also really into the story, which is just _weird_ , because I'm not used to the story being important at all."

  
"Pyrrha Nikos?"

  
"Oh yeah, she's in JNPR. I thought I told you that."

  
"I... must not have made the connection." Tai knew that she was in Ruby's year, but hearing that his daughters were friends with someone famous... Even if he wasn't a fan of her cereal.

  
"She's great. I go to the range with her a lot, since she actually has a rifle-mode to her weapon. It's fun to actually have a range partner, instead of having to go myself."

  
"You used to go with Yang."

  
"Yeah, but it's a lot easier to train when we've both got rifles. Once you get past the basics, the skills don't really transfer. No, Yang goes to the range with Sun, and Blake goes with Ren, and Weiss doesn't really go, because she just uses Dust for ranged attacks. Unlike Jaune, who just doesn't have a ranged option." Tai resigned himself to not knowing who most of these folks were, at least until he got a chance to visit and meet all of them.

  
"Is she as good at the range as she is on the tournament field? Pyrrha, I mean."

  
Ruby nodded. "Oh yeah. Her rifle doesn't have quite as much range as Crescent Rose, but she's just using ironsights most of the time. I mean, she does have that scope that comes out of her circlet, but she doesn't really use it for shooting."

  
"Then what does she use it for?" And right away, Tai knew that was the wrong question, even it had been the obvious one.

  
Pulling her hood down over her matching face, Ruby said, "I don't know, look. At things."

  
Ah. Boys. Or girls. Or enbies. Or some combination of those.

  
Tai had a sudden urge to ask if Ruby was looking at anyone, but he fought down the urge. If Ruby was, she'd tell him. Or she wouldn't. It was kind of his business, but only kind of. And she was embarrassed already, so probably not the best way to get her talking. And he'd ask about Yang, but he _still_ didn't know if Yang had dated anyone at Signal. Tai didn't think so, but given who she'd hung out with, and everything _they'd_ been written up for... The other teachers hadn't said anything, but he wasn't sure if they would. It was one thing to gossip about other people's kids, and who they were _probably_ having sex with (especially when they'd all definitely had sex ed, and the condom bowl in the nurse's office kept needing refilling), but when the kid's parent was sitting right there...

  
Not that dating and sex were the same thing. Qrow certainly didn't think so. Even if he had almost as much fun spinning tales as chasing tail. But Tai wasn't all that worried about his daughters having sex like Qrow did. Slightly worried, but those seemed like just ordinary levels of anxiety. No, relationships were the ones that could hurt.

  
But he knew that his daughters knew that he knew that, even if he also knew (and they knew that he knew) that relationships didn't always hurt. Most people didn't go through what he had, and Tai _knew_ that. But he still found himself shying away from anything new, and he wondered sometimes how that had damaged his daughters. Yang had picked up the slack around the house, but she shouldn't have had to. Especially as young as she had. But she did, and Tai just wanted to try to help Yang and Ruby however he could when they _did_ get into a relationship, but if they never told him when they got into one-

  
"Dad? Pizza?"

  
Oh, they were here already. He blinked up at the sign for Virgil's Tables. Tai turned back to his daughter. "Slices, whole pie, here, to-go?"

  
She got her thinking face on. "I think we should eat here, so we have the strength to fight off the raccoons. And we should get a whole pie, so we can eat that for breakfast in the morning."

  
"Good thinking. No wonder you're team leader. Decisive! I like it!"

  
"Daaaad."

  
Tai grinned. "I'm serious! Yang would want to get everyone's opinions first, and she wouldn't count her own as much, but you just gave me a good answer right away."

  
"I like how Yang does it. Wait, what was the second part?"

  
"She doesn't count her own opinion as much? She doesn't exactly advertise it, but yeah. Yang always puts other people first. Even if it means doing something she doesn't really want to." _And that's definitely my fault. I forced her to grow up too fast._

  
"Pyrrha does the same thing."

  
"She does?"

  
Ruby cocked her head, eyes a bit wide like she'd surprised herself "She does. But it's not something I knew until I said it. She's just nice all the time to everyone. But not the same way as Yang is? I don't know."

  
"It's okay. People are complicated." Didn't he know. "You know what isn't as complicated?"

  
"Pizza?"

  
"Pizza!" 

  
They could always work on understanding people after dinner. Or, better yet, after the raccoons were cleared out. Tai was _pretty_ sure they'd gotten in. But even if they hadn't, he wanted Ruby to make a plan of attack over dinner. Tai wanted to give her a chance to show off what she'd learned. Not that she needed to prove anything; he was glowing with pride all the time. But Tai did want to bask in his daughter's genius a little bit. She was so much like her mother.


End file.
